If you are like me you try to get out in the deer woods as much as possible. To me it is a place to go and catch my breath from the day to day hussle and bussle. Most of us don’t realize that anything can happen at any time whether you are prepared or not and whether you are a mile from home or a thousand miles from home.

When I go hunting I always carry a few items in my back pack and the most important is a first aid kit. I bought this one pictured below from Bass Pro Shops for just $12.99 and it offers different size kits according to how long you will be in the field.

Contents:
• One - Povidone iodine ointment
• Six - Antiseptic towelettes
• One - Green soap sponge
• Four - Ibuprofen tablets
• Four - Acetaminophen tablets
• Two - Decongestant tablets
• One - Sting relief
• Two - Antibiotic ointment
• One - Tincture of benzoin
• Six - Adhesive bandages 1″ x 3″
• Five - Mini bandages
• Two - Knuckle bandages
• Two - 2″ x 3″ non-stick pads
• Six - 3″ x 3″ gauze pads
• Two - Sterile wound closure
• One - Adhesive taps 1/2″ x 10 yards
• One - Gauze roll 2″ x 5 yards
• One - Moleskin 2″ x 3″
• Tweezers
• Resealable bag
• Pair nitrile gloves
• First aid booklet

A flash light is another item that I always take with me. I prefer a mini-mag from Maglite which only takes 2 “AA” batteries. It is light and is just enough light to see what you need to, it does not take up a lot of space. These are very inexpensive and can be purchased anywhere, even at hardware stores.

Another item which is good to have is a compass and/or gps. For a compass I would recommend a Lensatic compass like this one below. You can get one right from Cabela’s for just $14.99, it is easy to read and gives you a way to line up a distant object to keep track of in the direction you need to go.

If you want a GPS this one is made by Garmin and is very user friendly and can be purchased from Walmart for just $90.00 which is the one I decided on for my trip to the northwoods of Maine this coming November.

Plus there are a few other items that will fit in your backpack like for instance,

1. - bottled water, to keep you hydrated

2. - surveyors tape, for marking your trail and/or leaving sign posts for other people follow.

3. - snacks, to keep your energy up

4. - cell phone, no explanation needed

5. - knife, can be used in a lot of different ways

6.- rain gear, usually folded in a nice zip lock bag

It never hurts to be better safe than sorry and it doesn’t take much than a back pack to carry a few items in.

Here is a touching story that should be read. You will not here stuff like this very often.

W hat can you do to express appreciation to someone for saving your life? Ed Hearn found the answer on a farm in southeast Kansas. That’s where he was host of a dream deer hunt with Chuck Satterwhite of Macclenny, Fla., a childhood friend who donated his kidney to Hearn in 2001.

“When someone sacrifices like Chuck did, you’d do anything for him. I knew he really wanted to hunt in Kansas, so I wanted to make it happen. “That was just one small way I could show my gratitude.”

To read the whole story,

A hunt with Ed Hearn for a way to say thanks

By: BRENT FRAZEE
The Kansas City Star

This is something that I have never heard of. After thinking about it though it does make a lot of sense and would certainly help in discarding carcasses as well as curve possible health hazard issues.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007 10:57 AM CDT

Dispatch Staff Report

Deer-hunting season opens Oct. 1 and - for the fourth year in a row - trash bins specifically designated for deer carcasses will be placed throughout Lowndes County to accommodate hunters.

Bins - or “dumpsters” - will be placed in the same locations as last year, specifically on Grant Road, at Mini Motors on Highway 12, at the Fire Departments on Jess Lyons Road and on Highway 69 South, and in two locations at the New Hope High School football field.

Also, dumpsters will be placed at Bridge County Line on Old West Point Road, at Leroy’s Landing, on South Front Street in Artesia, on Carson Road and Old Macon Road South, at the intersection of Starkville and Fairport roads in Crawford and at the Rural Hill Fire Department.

The trash bins, which will be placed by crews from Golden Triangle Waste services, will be dumped into the landfill and only are to be used for deer carcasses, said County Administrator Nick Hairston.

I Just read a post by Kristine over at Gun Safety Innovations about how crazy the weather was in her area, the post is called ” Our Whacky, Whacky Weather “

What she described sure sounds like New England weather. It changes so much that one day it is warm and comfortable and some days it will be cool and chilly especially, this time of year. The weather has it’s effects on all the wildlife as it does us as human beings. Some people like it hot and some don’t and some like the rain and some don’t.

The weather effects whitetails as well. It can determine what time of day they will feed the most or what locations they might frequent at certain times. If you study the weather and deer movement it just might better your success rate as a hunter. I know that this year I am paying more attention to the weather and how it effects deer movement.

I am not doing it in any type of scientific way but just by plain making notes and post in my blog and using that information to refer back to in the future. I am always looking to better my odds when it does come time to head for the deer woods in search of harvesting to food for the freezer.

Whitetails in the northeast are different than say Whitetails in Texas, meaning they are used to different climates. They are the most adaptable creature that I know of. Even in todays society where people are slowly encroaching into their home grounds building houses and commercial business. I would imagine they probably feel like the indians did back in the 1800’s when the white man was taking over their lands. In my opinion it was a shame then and it is a shame now.

Fortunately for the Whitetail they have learned to be very adaptable and they can live right in your back yard and the average person would not even know it. Getting back to the weather a little bit. I feel that the weather is just going to keep changing and changing. Our climate is not what it was years ago partly because of the ozone breaking down. With all this fossil fuel burning and pollution from for example diesel engines that I think it will continue to eat away the ozone. Summers are going to be hotter and dryer and winters are going to be colder and more snow as well as spring, spring can be more wetter.

I know when I used to bowhunt I never saw that many deer because it was usually warm still except early morning and late evening. When Autumn and Winter came the deer movement picked up and was steady throughout the day. If I wore heavy fur coats like them I would not want to move around much when it was warm either.

So if your up for a little experiment just start writing down when you see deer with all the weather info like temp, barometric pressure, wind and condition of sky with what stage the moon was in. Keep track of this and you just might see a pattern. I started doing this in my Deer Sightings category.

Here is another example of another town that is looking toward having a controlled hunt to manage the deer herd population. The proposal is for a controlled hunt on 25 acres of watershed property that is owned by South Norwalk Electric and Water. More and more I feel towns will see the need for this because of the rising cases of Lyme Disease and the damage that deer can do to residential yards as well as cut down on the number of car/deer collisions.

New Canaan Connecticut is no different and they are in the process of setting up a controlled hunt. To read more go to the New Canaan News~Review.

A lawsuit was dismissed and Bowhunting will be allowed. Three animal rights activists had sought to stop bowhunting on the Gen. Harry C. Trexler Nature Preserve. The Wildlands Conservancy was hired by Lehigh County to manage the preserve and to restore it’s ecological balance.

Read the full story from The Morning Call.

On my way home from work this morning on was on the home stretch which leaves me about two or three miles from home I saw a doe with two yearlings. The thing is these two yearlings were so small that you would think they should still have spots but, they had there gray coats on. They could not have been any bigger than my dog Sampson who is half German Shepard and half Siberian Husky. It was pretty to see though, the doe was on alert after seeing my headlights and the two yearlings were stuck to her like glue.

temp - 67 degrees

wind - calm

barometer - 30.02 and steady

sky - clear

time - 1:00 a.m.

This time of year gets real crazy for me as it does for so many others. I know I try to balance work, scouting/hunting, home chores, family and this year I can add on Doctor appointments to the list of things to do.

See I think that if you don’t sit back every once in awhile and take a deep breath and look around your favorite part of the year will fly by and you will be wondering where it went. I just returned back to work after being out for a month on sick leave so I’m still kind of fatiqued and on top of that work is busy and quite a bit was not covered while I was out so I am running steady to catch up.

I am also trying to keep track of deer sightings while scouting, checking my deer cam and most importantly keeping track of the weather and deer movement. This year I am trying to pay more attention to weather and the effect it has on deer movement because I feel it will better my success rate. I love to scout for deer so I am constantly looking for potential new locations to hunt although i am very fond of the original place I started out hunting in.

This time of year I usually start to get the house and yard ready for winter but I started a little early. I don’t want to lose any time in the woods if possible. People in general lead a busy and hectic life. We are always on the go and don’t stop long enough to smell the roses so to speak. I have said it alot in the past year and a half since my father died that life is to short to waste it so make sure you take the time. This year has been tough for me health wise so that saying means twice as much.

The other thing that takes up a lot of time is family but, you know I would not give that up for anything. If it weren’t for my wife and two boys I really don’t know where I would be today and quite frankly I would not want to even think about it. You know one of the best parts of a successful deer hunt is pulling up in front of my house with a nice deer in the truck and my family coming out to look and my wife taking pictures and my youngest sitting in the truck bed and petting the deer or my oldest helping me carry it to the back of the house and helping me hang it. That gives never ending memories as do all the pictures that my wife takes.

Last but not least this year I started this blog which I need to thank Skinny Moose Media for. When I was approached and asked if I wanted to blog the only thing I could think of to blog about was my passion for Whitetail Deer Hunting. I thought long and hard and came up with the title ” Tails and Trails ” and Steve Remington at Skinny Moose got me going and it has been a blast ever since. It does take a lot of time some days but you know it is worth it. I have met via the computer so many people, so many hunters that I would recommend blogging to anyone.

It’s time to put my son on the bus and go for a walk around the lake with my wife so I hope all this jabber makes you think and helps remind you to stop and take time to enjoy your passion and to share it with others.

This morning I guess it was breakfast time under the apple tree. On my way home from dropping off my son at work I spotted a adult doe and a yearling have breakfast under the apple tree at a nearby farm. I am really sure they were two that I posted pictures of in a earlier post. This time they have nice gray coats of fur and they have filled out slightly. It is always nice to see them, I don’t think I will ever get tired of looking for them.

temp - 60 degrees

wind - west southwest @ 1 mph

barometer - 30.05 and rising

sky - clear and sunny

State land/Public land can be some of the best hunting areas around if you do your scouting and time you hunts correctly.

I do most of my hunting on state land so you could imagine how much I have to contend with. I spend all year watching my favorite piece of state land to see who goes in it and where they go in it. Granted it is task that would make most guys give up and move on but I will testify that by putting in all that time pays off, state land is where I have harvested 80% of all the deer I have taken in the last 17 years.

The one thing that makes it even harder for me to keep tabs on is I have a nature trail that goes through my area from one end to the other. It usually has people hiking it or guys on mountain bikes at all times of the day. During deer season it can be very beneficial to have people on that trail. The deer are very use to this so they don’t get spooked but they do keep there distance which could make for well known stand locations if you have done your scouting.

You never know what your going to see or who your going to see on state land especially in my area. You have to be able to adapt to the amount of pressure that it gets during deer season. I have hunted this area for seventeen years now so I have a pretty good idea what spots get pressured the most so you can figure that I will be somewhere else.

One important fact that I need to mention is that you can not assume that you are always alone. I have been at full draw with a bow on a deer that was going to step out in my shooting lane when all of a sudden I had a guy with his wife and INFANT all dressed in white come walking up the trail behind me. Obviously I did not shoot and all I got was a ” We are sorry ” and a laugh as they walked away. There was this other time when I was sitting in my stand right at day break and in the swamp up above my location was some duck hunters blasting away like it was wartime and then the next thing I knew I had steel pellets bouncing off my tree stand platform, at that point I gave up and went home. There was this one time when a friend and me were muzzleloader hunting in this area. We were about 60 yards apart when all of a sudden we heard bells. It was a group of 3 guys with jingle bells that were doing a deer drive and they walked right between us like we were not even there. Let me tell you, I was really pissed off for one thing that was rude and for another it is illegal in the state of Connecticut to perform deer drives. So what I am trying to get at is you need to be aware of what is around you at all times whether on state land or private land.

Another thing I want to mention is that there are some people that don’t have the ethics that some of us have so if you hunt state land and you use a fixed position stand make sure you chain it to the tree and before you leave the woods you should take your tree steps out. Otherwise the next time you go out your tree stand might not be there and yes I am speaking from experience. I had my best tree stand at the time stolen so now I use a climber. It goes in with me and it leaves with me. I still use a fixed position once in awhile but it is something that I pieced together and if it get stolen than I am just out a stand that did not cost me anything.

Don’t let any of the bad stuff I mentioned scare you off. I have learned to take it for what it is and I have learned to use it to my advantage and if you can learn than it will pay off for you like it does for me.